I'm pleased to announce that we've resumed development on Siralim Ultimate!

Recently, we distributed a survey via Discord to see what players wanted to be added to the game. With over 500 responses, these insights will pave the way toward a new future for Siralim Ultimate, as well as our other games. Many of the responses took me by surprise, but let's jump to the part you probably care about the most: more content for Siralim Ultimate!


Localization, Bug Fixes, and Quality of Life

The game still has some bugs that need to be fixed, and those fixes will be included in an upcoming patch. I've also included some quality of life features. Lastly, the game will finally support localization so players can enjoy the game in other languages.


Backer Shop

Over one-third of survey respondents (far, far more than expected) expressed interest in the return of the backer shop. So, we're bringing it back, improved and streamlined based on past experiences.


Here's what to expect:
- We'll open a new page on our website where supporters can choose what kind of content they want us to create, payable via PayPal (no account required). The shop will open on May 1, 2024.
- After choosing your content, we'll reach out to you via email to ask for some more details.
- Once approved, your request will be added to our queue.
- Your new content will be added to the game in an upcoming patch. It is important to remember that we will likely receive a lot of orders, and it is very difficult to provide an ETA on when your content will be ready. I'll do my best to keep everyone updated with our progress and plan to keep a public spreadsheet available so you can track this progress in real time.

To be clear, this content will be made available for all players, so even if you don't want to pay for anything, you can still look forward to a huge new batch of creatures, spells, decorations, and much more - absolutely free of charge.


New Game Content

Unsurprisingly, most respondents were interested in new content - particularly, extra game modes (chosen when you start a new save file).

Here are a few examples of some new game modes, but please remember these are all in the "ideas phase" and are subject to change, or might not even make it into the final game at all:

- Sandbox Mode. Gives you instant access to all creatures, spells, decorations, cards, and more. This is great for testing purposes.
- Ruthless Mode. This mode features fewer item drops, faster-scaling difficulty, and other tweaks to slow the game down a bit while making everything feel more rewarding. The name of this mode was borrowed from the same one in Path of Exile, so if you've played that, you should have some idea about what to expect here.
- Story Skip Mode. You'll still start at level 1, but all story quests will be finished, and certain features will be unlocked immediately.
- Randomizer Mode. You'll be able to randomize all kinds of different things, such as the creatures that spawn in each realm, the contents of shops, and much more.
- Calm Mode. This mode aims to make battles feel less hectic by reducing the maximum number of actions that can be taken, such as the number of attacks/casts that can be done in one turn. Several traits and other effects will be modified to make it more difficult to reach these new limits as well.

I have some ideas that are really creative and experimental as well, but I'd rather not reveal them until I'm sure I can make them work.

These modes can be mixed and matched for a personalized gaming experience. We're also planning to unlock some new content through "stretch goals" in our backer shop, akin to Kickstarter campaigns.


Patch Timeline

The difficult part about updating Siralim Ultimate is that so many players (roughly 60%, judging by the survey results) use our cloud storage feature to access their save files on multiple platforms. Unfortunately, this means that if I add content to one platform, you won't be able to play that save file on another platform until that platform receives the new content as well. For that reason, I will keep this patch on our Steam beta branch for a pretty long time.

The patch will include the promised localizations, bug fixes, suggestions, backer content, and much more. It will be an enormous patch that will take months of testing on the beta branch, but this will ensure that 1) your cloud storage service isn't interrupted and 2) supporters can see their new content added to the game as soon as possible.


The Next Game

Lastly, I'm very excited to announce that I've been working on a new game over the last 2 years. It's too soon to reveal any major details yet, but if you like Siralim, I suspect you'll enjoy the new game as well. It's yet another massive RPG that boasts thousands of hours of content.

This year is going to be a massive one for us, and I can't wait to share more information very soon! Stay tuned for more updates and reveals.

Siralim Ultimate is on sale at 40% off for Android and iOS this week! This is the first time the game has ever been discounted on these platforms.

And remember, you can transfer your save file between the mobile, Steam, and Switch versions of the game at any time!

Finally, Siralim Ultimate is available on Nintendo Switch in the North America, Europe, and Australia regions! You can use the Cloud Storage feature on the title menu to transfer your save files between the Steam, Switch, Android, and iOS versions as well. Enjoy!

Get your limited edition Dumpling plushie on Makeship now[www.makeship.com]! Orders are open for the next 21 days, and after that, it will never be available for purchase again!

https://www.makeship.com/products/dumpling-plush

Patch 1.1.1 is now available on all platforms! Thanks to everyone who tested the patch and reported bugs/crashes.

This update includes 10 new specializations, along with many new spells, minions, achievements, costumes, skins, anointments, and much more. On top of that, we've added several of quality-of-life improvements to the game as a result of your feedback.

Here are the patch notes in case you missed them in my last post:

PATCH NOTES
- 8 specializations have been added to the game: Toxicologist, Engineer, Shadowbringer, Demonologist, Mime, Graveborn, Gladiator, and Brewmaster. You can unlock them via new projects.
- 2 Challenge Specializations have been added to the game: Pariah and Deprived. Instead of providing you with bonuses, these specializations make you significantly weaker. However, if you're able to Ascend them, you'll earn a special reward. These specializations' projects are only available after you unlock the Gate of the Gods.
- Additional content related to the new specializations has been added: 120 achievements, 30 costumes, 10 skins, new anointments, and more.
- 10 spells have been added to the game. These were added to extend support for under-utilized debuffs such as Poison and Cursed.
- 11 minions have been added to the game. Many of these work much differently than normal minions (and most are exclusive to the new Demonologist specialization), so check out the Codex for more information.
- Each week, a new buff will activate that either increases your Card Drop Rate, Skin Drop Rate, Nether Stone Drop Rate, or Bonus Loot. You can see which buff is active by interacting with the new Calendar decoration in your castle (found in the Utilities/NPC category).
- You can now choose to consume 1, 2, or 3 tickets at the Gambling Dwarves. This multiplies your rewards by the number of tickets spent, and also counts as playing that many times for the sake of Prophecies and Achievements.
- The following new macro conditions have been added to the Macro Editor: Resurrection Count, Death Count, Is Not At Top of Timeline, Is Not At Bottom of Timeline, Has Trait, and Doesn't Have Trait. Note for those last two: prior to this patch, many traits were not recorded in your Codex (False Gods, God Battles, etc), so you'll need to encounter these traits in battles before you'll see them appear on the list.
- You can sort Nether Stones by Locked and Unlocked in all interfaces.
- You can now rename your Nether Stones at the Blacksmith using the new "Etch" function.
- Most Arsenal and Booze spells have been changed/buffed to be more useful.
- Most Exotic creatures' traits and backer traits are now more powerful.
- The Lister and Jotun fights no longer use battle fatigue as their metric for victory, and are instead based on the number of turns creatures have taken in battle (24 total turns for Lister, 36 total turns for Jotun). The intent of this change is to shorten these fights under normal circumstances, make them a bit more predictable, and prevent players from feeling like they need to fish for certain realm properties to defeat Jotun in a reasonable amount of time.
- None of the False Gods are immune to Blighted anymore, and False God self-healing from their innate traits no longer counts as healing effects.
- Cabalist's "Flow of Magic" perk has been revamped because it was simply an inferior version of this specialization's "Prism" perk.
- Enemies can no longer spawn with the "Saving Grace" spell. Note that they can still acquire this spell in battle through other effects.
- Numbers greater than or equal to 1 quadrillion are now expressed using scientific notation. This means that all numbers can now be displayed so the game won't default to "?!?!" if you reach too high of a number.
- Massive optimizations to make the game run smoother, especially in battles that drag on for a long time.
- Several fixes and improvements for Steam Deck.
- Tons of bug fixes.

Patch 1.1.0 is now available on our test branch! As with many of our previous patches, I've decided to release this patch on a separate branch that you must opt-into before you can download it.

Please expect some bugs and crashes associated with this patch today. I will update the game pretty aggressively over the next few days to fix any issues that come up. With that said, if you feel like some hiccups might frustrate you, I suggest you wait until this patch is released to the main branch before playing it.

In order to download the patch, please do the following:

1) Make a backup of your save folder. You'll find it in C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\SiralimUltimate. Copy the entire "save" folder to somewhere else on your computer. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!

2) In your Steam Library, right-click Siralim Ultimate, go to Properties, then the "BETAS" tab. Enter the code "specializations123". Click the "check code" button and then you should be able to select "test" from the list of betas in the dropdown menu.

3) The patch should download automatically now. If not, restart Steam.

Expect this patch to remain on the test branch for a few weeks. Once it's stable, I will need to prepare it for all other platforms and launch it simultaneously on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android to prevent issues with cloud saves, so that will cause the full release of this patch to take longer than usual.

Please note that this test is only for Windows; I'll release a Mac and Linux version when we're ready to send the patch to the main branch, or perhaps a few days beforehand.

Let me know on our support board if you run into any issues!

NOTE: Cross-platform cloud saving will not work while this patch is on the test branch.
___________________________________________


PATCH NOTES
- 8 specializations have been added to the game: Toxicologist, Engineer, Shadowbringer, Demonologist, Mime, Graveborn, Gladiator, and Brewmaster. You can unlock them via new projects.
- 2 Challenge Specializations have been added to the game: Pariah and Deprived. Instead of providing you with bonuses, these specializations make you significantly weaker. However, if you're able to Ascend them, you'll earn a special reward. These specializations' projects are only available after you unlock the Gate of the Gods.
- Additional content related to the new specializations has been added: 120 achievements, 30 costumes, 10 skins, new anointments, and more.
- 10 spells have been added to the game. These were added to extend support for under-utilized debuffs such as Poison and Cursed.
- 11 minions have been added to the game. Many of these work much differently than normal minions (and most are exclusive to the new Demonologist specialization), so check out the Codex for more information.
- Each week, a new buff will activate that either increases your Card Drop Rate, Skin Drop Rate, Nether Stone Drop Rate, or Bonus Loot. You can see which buff is active by interacting with the new Calendar decoration in your castle (found in the Utilities/NPC category).
- You can now choose to consume 1, 2, or 3 tickets at the Gambling Dwarves. This multiplies your rewards by the number of tickets spent, and also counts as playing that many times for the sake of Prophecies and Achievements.
- The following new macro conditions have been added to the Macro Editor: Resurrection Count, Death Count, Is Not At Top of Timeline, Is Not At Bottom of Timeline, Has Trait, and Doesn't Have Trait. Note for those last two: prior to this patch, many traits were not recorded in your Codex (False Gods, God Battles, etc), so you'll need to encounter these traits in battles before you'll see them appear on the list.
- You can sort Nether Stones by Locked and Unlocked in all interfaces.
- You can now rename your Nether Stones at the Blacksmith using the new "Etch" function.
- Most Arsenal and Booze spells have been changed/buffed to be more useful.
- Most Exotic creatures' traits and backer traits are now more powerful.
- The Lister and Jotun fights no longer use battle fatigue as their metric for victory, and are instead based on the number of turns creatures have taken in battle (24 total turns for Lister, 36 total turns for Jotun). The intent of this change is to shorten these fights under normal circumstances, make them a bit more predictable, and prevent players from feeling like they need to fish for certain realm properties to defeat Jotun in a reasonable amount of time.
- None of the False Gods are immune to Blighted anymore, and False God self-healing from their innate traits no longer counts as healing effects.
- Cabalist's "Flow of Magic" perk has been revamped because it was simply an inferior version of this specialization's "Prism" perk.
- Enemies can no longer spawn with the "Saving Grace" spell. Note that they can still acquire this spell in battle through other effects.
- Numbers greater than or equal to 1 quadrillion are now expressed using scientific notation. This means that all numbers can now be displayed so the game won't default to "?!?!" if you reach too high of a number.
- Massive optimizations to make the game run smoother, especially in battles that drag on for a long time.
- Several fixes and improvements for Steam Deck.
- Tons of bug fixes.

Siralim Ultimate is now available on iOS! Just like with the Android version, you can share your save files with the Steam version of the game using the Cloud Saving option on the title menu.

Get it here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/siralim-ultimate/id1601114348

Siralim Ultimate is now available on Android (Google Play)! You can even share your save files with the Steam version of the game using the Cloud Saving option on the title menu.

Get it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thylacinestudios.siralimultimate

Be sure to check your mailbox for a celebratory gift on all platforms!

Patch 1.0.5 is now available on our test branch! As with many of our previous patches, I've decided to release this patch on a separate branch that you must opt-into before you can download it.

Please expect some bugs and crashes associated with this patch today. I will update the game pretty aggressively over the next few days to fix any issues that come up. With that said, if you feel like some hiccups might frustrate you, I suggest you wait until this patch is released to the main branch before playing it.

In order to download the patch, please do the following:

1) Make a backup of your save folder. You'll find it in C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\SiralimUltimate. Save the entire "save" folder somewhere else on your computer. Please do not skip this step.

2) In your Steam Library, right-click Siralim Ultimate, go to Properties, then the "BETAS" tab. Enter the code "optimizations123". Click the "check code" button and then you should be able to select "test" from the list of betas in the dropdown menu.

3) The patch should download automatically now. If not, restart Steam.

Unless some major issues appear, I will move this patch to the main branch in a few days. Also, please note that this test is only for Windows; I'll release a Mac and Linux version when we're ready to send the patch to the main branch.

Please let me know on our support board if you run into any issues!

___________________________________________

- ADD: "High Performance Mode" to "Display" options menu. This will make the game run more efficiently at the cost of FPS and some visual degradation. Steam users almost definitely won't ever need to enable this option and it's largely intended for the upcoming mobile ports for weak devices, but it's available on all platforms just in case.
- CHANGE: Massive optimizations for the entire game. This is the biggest and best optimization pass I've ever done and the game should run much faster.
- CHANGE: Revamped the way the game loads save files. This revamp is so fast that there's no longer a need for the Loading...20% etc when you launch the game. It's instant now.
- CHANGE: Greatly improved the speed of cloud file importing/exporting. Also improved the overall stability and reliability of this feature.
- CHANGE: Improved the way text is drawn to make it look cleaner and sharper in many parts of the game, most notably floating overworld text.
- CHANGE: Removed "Export Data to Clipboard" option for Mac and Linux since it didn't work to begin with, and it's not possible to make this work with those platforms thanks to GMS' lack of support for it.
- FIX: "Spectral Rain" spell only targeted allies.
- FIX: Creature panels sometimes flickered in the Options menu.
- FIX: "Explosive Armor" perk dealt the incorrect amount of damage.
- FIX: "Balanced Swordplay" trait applied only to the creature that had this trait instead of the entire party.
- FIX: "Balanced Sorcery" trait applied only to the creature that had this trait instead of the entire party.
- FIX: Display issue with the "Pixies" skin.
- FIX: Spell Gems could be incorrectly unequipped if you lost a battle. This issue was fixed a while ago for winning battles, but it still existed for losing battles.
- FIX: When inputting text (renaming a creature, etc), the F key was supposed to move the selection to "Confirm". Instead, it removed the cursor and crashed the game.